Have you ever swept a floor with a feather or tried to dig a hole with a toothpick? Sometimes this is what articulation therapy for the “R” sound feels like…a lot of work with slow progress.

At Artic Bites, we have developed a product to guide children to the correct tongue placement and tongue tension to produce “R.” The end result is increased tongue awareness which increases sound perception of the “R.” Using our innovative product, children are able to identify and hold the correct tension and placement for “R,” making clear speech easier to achieve.

OUR COMMITMENT:

Artic Bites is here to help speech-language pathologists improve the delivery of their speech therapy for the “R” sound and have confidence in their ability to achieve lasting results for their clients. We are committed to improving the lives of children and adolescents by supporting the talented people who work with them. The Bite-R will reduce frustration for both clinician and child, increase progress, and allow for generalization and carryover. Children will be empowered as they develop independence in identifying correct tongue placement and tension through tactile cueing provided by the Bite-R device, rather than relying solely on verbal feedback of the SLP.

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We are committed to supporting our customers from purchase to clear speech. We encourage clinicians to schedule a free online training with Susan, our owner and inventor. We offer additional consultation through videos once therapy using the Bite-R has begun.

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About

This is our story.

Hi! Thank you for coming to our site. My name is Susan Haseley. I grew up in central Illinois and married my high school sweetheart, Roger. Can I tell you how wonderful he is? Roger has supported every one of my dreams and found a way to help me make it happen. Together, we have two awesome grown children. We love spending time with them and our beautiful granddaughter. If you have ever seen me speak, then you have met our Charlotte! She has such a big personality and she’s only 4!

So how did I get to invent a speech therapy device? The short answer is that I wasn’t willing to let two of my students fail. They had spectacular parents who helped them and did whatever was asked. This was not only frustrating for me, it was creating a wedge in therapy. I knew I needed tongue tension, but nothing that I had tried before was working. I just had to invent a product.

The Bite-R was created solely for tongue tension, but I wanted a device that didn’t give a distorted jaw or lip placement for the R sound. Having had no experience in design, manufacturing or business; the right people came along and provided information, support and helped me to give a product that has helped many children achieve the R sound.

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Have you ever swept a floor with a feather or tried to dig a hole with a toothpick? Sometimes this is what articulation therapy for the “R” sound feels like…a lot of work with slow progress.

At Artic Bites, we have developed a product to guide children to the correct tongue placement and tongue tension to produce “R.” The end result is increased tongue awareness which increases sound perception of the “R.” Using our innovative product, children are able to identify and hold the correct tension and placement for “R,” making clear speech easier to achieve.

OUR COMMITMENT:

Artic Bites is here to help speech-language pathologists improve the delivery of their speech therapy for the “R” sound and have confidence in their ability to achieve lasting results for their clients. We are committed to improving the lives of children and adolescents by supporting the talented people who work with them. The Bite-R will reduce frustration for both clinician and child, increase progress, and allow for generalization and carryover. Children will be empowered as they develop independence in identifying correct tongue placement and tension through tactile cueing provided by the Bite-R device, rather than relying solely on verbal feedback of the SLP.

.

We are committed to supporting our customers from purchase to clear speech. We encourage clinicians to schedule a free online training with Susan, our owner and inventor. We offer additional consultation through videos once therapy using the Bite-R has begun.

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Parent Page

We love Parents! Parents are always the first and best teachers of their children.

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But when it comes to the R sound, frustration can abound. The child can’t imitate the R, but can recognize when someone else’s R sound is poor. The child can make an R sound in one word, but not in another with the same sounds! The child can produce a clear R word and then turn around and say it incorrectly the next time.

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This is frustrating! To the child. To the Parents. To the Speech Pathologist. It seems to be easy to blame someone else.

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So when it comes the R sound, we say to you the parents, “We’ve got this one!” Relax. You have the homework of school, the after school activities and all of the burdens that go with being a parent. “We’ve got this one!”

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Here is what will happen as your child uses the device with the school speech pathologist:

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1) Almost instantly your child will become aware of his/her tongue. The elastic band on the Bite-R provides a strong feel that increases the tongue tension.

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2) Next your child will develop a tongue position that helps your child create more perfect R sounds…that he/she can repeat.

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3) Carryover happens without the child being aware of it…which makes it perfect for both you and the child.

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How it works

The Bite-R was designed to create tongue tension. Additionally, when the child bites on the bite plates, the jaw is stabilized as well as the lips when they are protruded into an “sh” shape.

The child is then asked to slide the tongue under the elastic (midfront of the tongue) and given the command to pull up and back with the elastic band. When that happens, the child stabilizes the lateral edges of the tongue on the insides of the upper molars. All of this creates the stability needed for a tongue that is placed correctly and with tension to produce an acoustically perfect R!

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Part 2:Using Tactile Therapy to Elicit the more challenging R sounds:

Once the Bite-R has been used for a few sessions, children develop tongue awareness which in turn develops their awareness of their sound productions. The Tactile Therapy changes from previous treatments in that the child is taught to talk about the location of the lips, jaw (teeth) and tongue. Once the child is aware of the articulators, imprecise movements can be changed to ones that produce an r sound that the child can say again and again.

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There will still be challenging words/vowel combinations for the child. At first the technique used is to have the child pause after the vowel and then silently practice the vowel sound and then practice the Bite-R position. The child should be asked to describe the movements. The silent vowel and R are practiced slowly at first and then when the child has smoothed the movements, the word is attempted out loud.